Miss Desjardin (Literary)
Miss Rita L. Desjardin is a character in "Carrie (Novel)". History As the story begins, Rita at first feels the same disgust everyone feels for Carrie White. She even has a tendency to approve the other girl´s behaviour during the shower incident for her hysterical reaction at her first period. However, when she realizes, that Carrie didn't even know, what a period was and takes her side. She teaches her about it. She also wants to punish the girls, that taunted her by having them suspended for three days and barred from the senior prom, but the principal settles on a lesser punishment: a week of boot-camp style detention in the gym; refusing to attend detention will result in suspension from school and banishment from the prom. In Desjardin's view, the only reason the administrators didn't go along with her proposed punishment is, that they are all men, and thus didn't really understand just how nasty the girls' behavior had been. Lead bully Chris Hargensen skips the detention and thus is barred from the prom. The principal reprimands Desjardin for cursing at Chris, but stands by her when Chris's lawyer dad threatens to sue unless Chris is allowed to attend the prom and Desjardin is fired. At the prom, she talks with Carrie about her own prom night (she was several inches taller than her date and felt awkward, but remembers it as a beautiful event) and later, congratulates her for being voted Prom Queen. Chris has rigged a cord connected to two buckets above Carrie and Tommy, and pulls it when they ascend the stage, drenching them with pigs' blood. Everyone laughed, including Miss Desjardin, but later she ceased to laugh and runs to help Carrie, who pushes her aside with her telekinesis, because she realised she was laughing and still laughing inside her. Once outside, Carrie uses her gift to wreak havoc on the school, then leaves for home, destroying everything she passes. Miss Desjardin is one of the few, who survived by running to the fire door with the other survivors. Miss Desjardin is one of the few survivors of the "Black Prom". One month after the catastrophe, she retires from teaching, saying she is consumed with guilt over Carrie and also secretly for having behaved like she did at the Prom and even makes the statement that she would rather commit suicide than teach again because of what happened. Personality Miss Desjardin has a darker character than in the movies. In the novel she behaves in many ways like the other girls. Only after the shower incident she begins to realise, that she is behaving wrongly and begins to do something against it by punishing the girls. Still there are traces of her behaviour left in her during the Prom. That´s why she laughed at Carrie after being the victim of the assault ignoring Tommy on the way. She tried to console her, but behind this consolation there still was this evil attitude to humiliate her because she was strange. Having become aware of what she had done after the disaster, in which Carrie intended to kill her, too, she resigns from teaching. She knows, she is gulity regarding her behaviour and knows, she has failed that day as a teacher and that this failure contributed to the disaster. That´s why she makes the statement, that she would rather commit suicide than teach again. Category:Characters Category:Protagonist Category:Survivors Category:Literary